
Santa Fe living-wage advocates may have another fight on their hands.
Seeing opportunity in an economic crisis, the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce has begun quietly lobbying the City Council to delay the next annual increase to the living-wage ordinance.
The city’s minimum hourly wage, now $9.50, is scheduled to rise to $10 in January. Chamber of Commerce President Simon Brackley says the recession makes the bump unfeasible.
“We’re very concerned that another mandated increase in the minimum wage will put another burden on local businesses,” Brackley says. “If a business is already hanging on by a thread, this could be the difference between staying open and closing their doors.”
To local labor activists, the chamber’s proposal is a betrayal.
A wage freeze “would go contrary to everything we agreed upon,” former Living Wage Network Organizer Carol Oppenheimer says. “If that’s what the Chamber of Commerce tries to do, there’s going to be a tremendous uproar.”
Last year, local officials and businesses compromised with the living-wage campaigners: In exchange for annual cost-of-living increases for every minimum-wage worker, the activists would back down on their demand for a minimum of $10.50 an hour.
Brackley denies that the freeze proposal is a bait and switch. “I don’t think anybody saw this economic downturn coming. This is a completely different world than it was a year ago,” he says.
Brackley met with Mayor David Coss last week to discuss the wage freeze. Coss opposes it.
“We fought this issue for six years. We agreed to a compromise with the business community—to put this issue to rest and not have this be a battle because we had so many things to work on,” Coss says.
The chamber may have better luck with other city leaders. Councilor Matthew Ortiz, who sponsored the living wage, says he would now be open to halting it. “I think that the times we’re living in now cause us to rethink a lot of things,” Ortiz says.
Even if Brackley finds allies on the Council, he so far lacks support from Santa Fe’s other business groups.
Santa Fe Alliance Director Vicki Pozzebon says her organization—which, unlike the chamber, represents only locally owned businesses—won’t attempt to stall the living-wage increase. “We think there are plenty of other things local businesses can do to survive,” Pozzebon says.
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Director Lynette Montoya is aware of the chamber’s effort, but says her group is too new to weigh in.
No one disputes that local businesses are hurting. Brackley says a recent survey of chamber members found that a third have cut staff so far this year and that another one in five plans staff cuts next year.
But it’s doubtful Santa Fe’s living wage is wholly to blame. Brackley cites the closure of the local Linens ’n Things branch as evidence of the perniciousness of $9.50 an hour. But that recently bankrupt retailer announced last month that it would liquidate all of its linens and things, nationwide, by year’s end.
Silver lining: cheap pillow cases!